Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow and Kyiv ‘exchange drone strikes on energy grids’ in New Year attacks

Australian authorities are trying to confirm reports that a national was reportedly killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Russia.

The man, identified in social media posts as Russell Allan Wilson, was killed on 12 December in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, according to local media reports.

In an Instagram post on 19 December, a man identifying himself as a US army veteran said Wilson had been killed during combat and had chosen to remain in Ukraine despite the risks.

Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had hit Russia’s Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, adding that the results of the attack were still being confirmed.

In a statement on Telegram, the military also said it hit the Almetevskaya oil preparation facility in Russia’s Tatarstan region.

The Almetevskaya facility is more than 600 miles (965 km) from the nearest part of Ukraine, and even further from the nearest territory currently controlled by Kyiv.

Russian drone attack damaged power infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s energy ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said a “significant number” of households in the Volyn and Odesa regions – in northwestern and southwestern Ukraine, respectively – were disconnected from power supplies by the strike, as well as some in the Chernihiv region north of the capital Kyiv.

The governor of Volyn said more than 103,000 households in that region had lost power as a result of the attack. Volyn region is several hundred kilometres from the front line and borders NATO member Poland.

Ukrainian drones on Thursday struck an energy storage facility in the Russian city of Almetyevsk, causing a fire that has since been extinguished, Russian media cited the press service of the local governor as saying.

Kyiv has been intensifying strikes against Russian energy infrastructure in recent months, aiming to cut off Moscow’s sources of financing for its military campaign in Ukraine.

Almetyevsk is located around 1,700 km (1,056 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory, in the oil-rich Volga river region of Tatarstan.

Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday it had deployed two new Patriot air defence systems received from Germany as part of military aid supplies announced previously.

“Two more Patriot air defence systems have been deployed to protect Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure,” the ministry said in a post on Telegram.

Germany said last August that it would deliver two Patriot systems to Ukraine after reaching an agreement with the US that Berlin would be first in line to receive the latest systems in return.

Pictures of a badly damaged building have been released by pro-Russian media after the Russian-installed governor of Kherson accused Ukraine of killing at least 24 people in a drone strike.

In a statement on the Telegram messaging service. issued on Thursday, the governor, Vladimir Saldo, alleged a child was among the dead after the attack on a hotel and cafe where New Year celebrations were being held.

A local pro-Russian news outlet published pictures where it said the strike took place, with at least one dead body visible beneath a white sheet. The building showed signs that a fierce fire had raged and there were what looked like blood stains on the ground.

Ukraine’s military did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The images or allegations could not be independently verified.

Volodymyr Zelensky has sent a New Year’s message calling for peace.

In a post on X alongside a picture of him and his wife Olena Zelenska, he said: “We believe in peace, we fight for it, and we work to achieve it.”

Russian losses in the war in Ukraine have been growing at a faster rate than at any point so far since the invasion began in February 2022, new analysis suggests.

Analysis by the BBC found that 40 per cent more obituaries of soldiers were published in Russia this year compared with 2024.

The broadcaster, along with independent outlet Mediazona, compiled a list of named individuals using official reports, newspapers and social media, as well as new memorials and graves. In total, they were able to confirm the names of around 160,000 people who have been killed.